We’re still waiting for our jetpacks, but at least today’s lightbulbs are properly futuristic. The best example of how far lighting has come is the ilumi A21 Bluetooth Smartbulb, a super-efficient LED light that sports features straight out of sci-fi. And right now, it’s going for nearly half its normal price, just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Unu’s new Enerpak Extreme is an update to my favorite battery backup brick. In fact, I have one here on my desk ready to review, but I thought I’d tell you about it first.

The Enerpak Extreme is a 14,000mAh battery pack that can charge an iPhone or an iPad, or both at the same time. It has two full-sized USB ports, one 1-Amp and one 2.1-Amp, plus a microUSB port for charging the device itself.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found the included Flashlight–along with the ease of access within the Control Center–to be a fantastic addition to my life. I always have my iPhone with me, which means I always have a quick flashlight with me. I use it to see in my over-crowded closet, behind the sound board at gigs, and into my shed during the dark hours of the winter up here in Alaska. It’s handy.

One thing, though, that’s kind of a pain is turning the thing off. Yeah, you can slide the Control Center up, then tap the flashlight icon to turn it off. But I’m usually trying to manage my phone along with whatever thing I needed from the shed or the closet and those couple of steps can seem like too much.

48,000 people are about to descend on Black Rock City, Nevada to join in the Burning Man festival experiment. There’s going to be art galore, crazy events, weird costumes for days, and the brutal Black Rock Desert meting out its hellish punishments on each and every Burner.

Making the trip to BRC is easy, but surviving is entirely different, so we’ve found eight great apps that will help you get out of the desert alive:

Hurricane Sandy is supposed to slam into the East Coast today, bringing flooding and and diaster with her that hasn’t been seen in decades. New York City is already flooding and the worst hasn’t even hit yet.

Even though the iPhone does a lot of magical fun things, you can also use it to stay informed on Sandy and use a couple of apps that will help you know what to do when disaster hits. We want everyone on the East Coast to stay as safe as possible today so here are seven apps that will help you survive Sandy.

More proof that the iPhone is the 21st century analogue to the venerable Swiss Army Knife: a hiker lost in the woods on New Year’s Eve was able to alert and flag down rescuers using his iPhone’s flashlight app.